Dysentery

Dysentery is a random encounter in Tales from the Tiers.

Transcript
The day's journey is trying, owing to uneven terrain and dusty conditions. You reach a bend in the path and spy a small clearing off to the side. Several small rodents skitter away as you approach. At the edge of the clearing, you see a familiar sight - leafy vines coiling around tree trunks. As before, hundreds of thin, yellowish-green stems sprout from the vine, a collection of stiff bristles and elongated 'hairs,' each with a cluster of bright orange berries. To memory, you don't notice any significant difference between these plants and the ones you encountered previously. Examine the berries. Rub the berry pits against your skin. Examine the vine's leaves. Eat the berries. Leave. Judging the berries a greater risk than they're worth, you decide to leave the colorful fruit alone. Replenished waterskins will have to suffice for now, and continue on your way. Clustered together in tight drupelets, the berries vary from bright orange to a yellowish-orange color. The size of each individual fruit differs slightly between Bristleberry and Bristlebane, but it's very difficult to determine without the two side by side. Better to test with your skin rather than your stomach. You break off a cluster and mash the berries between your fingers, revealing the tiny pits inside. Working in slow circles, you rub them against your arm for a few seconds. Your skin remains free of any stinging rash, which you take as a good sign. The leaves extending from the main vine are bright green and lobed, with edges resembling undulating hills. This matches an old saying you recall about the berries: 'Leaves like hills, safe from chills. Leaves like rain, unending pain.' You adopt a cautious approach, filling your pouches with berries while eating only a single cluster. The fruit is sweet and tart, surprisingly juicy for its size, and the thought of immediately eating another handful is tantalizing... but you restrain yourself. With the stream as your guide, you cut follow the dense forest and eventually reach the main road with little difficulty. A hour later, you feel a disconcerting tightness in your intestines, one that escalates in intensity with each step. Your stomach churns, and the pressure in your belly intensifies, your guts seemingly trying to coil into knots. As a cold chill washes over your body, you recall the small rodents bounding away in the clearing. Their droppings must have contaminated the berries - an astute guess on your part, but one made far too late. Beads of sweat coalesce along your brow and your intestines begin to burn - the pain is intolerable. You have barely enough time to depart the road and duck behind a tree before you empty your innards in opposite directions simultaneously, coating the nearby trees and shrubs in a violent, bloody, and seemingly unending spray. The stench alone makes you vomit again, forcing you into a unfortunate cycle of nausea, release, and repeat. A half hour later, you find yourself splayed out on the dirt floor, panting and heaving. The cold sweat has broken, and the pain in your abdomen has subsided, for now. You drink deeply from your waterskin, exhausted and trembling. You stumble back to the road, grit your teeth, and continue on towards your destination. It looked like rodent droppings on the Bristleberry vine, and you've heard more than one tale of roadside woe owed to contaminated food. Better to imagine the taste of that fruit than to feel your insides tie themselves into knots. You return to the path and try to ignore the bounty behind you, reminding yourself that a parched throat is better than unending fire in your belly. As you examine the leaves, you notice a few of them have brown stains, dried and crusty. Small lines have been raked across the trunk hosting the vines - likely from a climbing animal foraging the berries. The berries appear to be safe. Continue... Continue... Continue... Continue... Continue...